After causing long term damage to civilian life andinflicting mass punishment on the Gaza Strip, it isperhaps the Israeli leaders who deserve sympathy, forhaving to live with the guilt of what they have done.Gazans will not send a mayday from the eye of the storm.Instead they will continue to survive and improvise in theintolerable conditions that they have been subjected tofor so long. This crossed my mind as I paced by an apricottree I planted about a year and a half ago, during what Ithought was one of the darkest periods for Gaza, to renewmy hope for better times. A shoot then, and a young treenow, the apricot tree grew in defiance of Gaza`sunfriendly skies, where Israeli airforce planes havereplaced the birds.

The tree shakes to the low altitude sonic booms whichIsraeli F-16 jets blow into Gaza`s skies. But itssteadfastness inspires people, like me, to hold on andremain sane until the next unannounced breaking of F-16hell, the humming of Apache helicopters and heavyartillery. It reminds me how difficult it must have beenfor people who had their orchards uprooted by the Israeliarmy in previous years in Gaza. Now it seems the army isback to uproot an entire population. But Gazans would notcompromise their humanity, even with the escalatingmilitary operation. Contrary to the insinuations ofIsrael`s media and public relations machine, the majorityof Gazans truly hope that Israel`s hostage soldier istreated humanely and eventually freed. Palestinians dearlymiss the basic human rights that Israel`s militaryoccupation has deprived them of for so many years, andwould not wish their loss on any soldier.

Ariel Sharon`s government conjured up every possiblemeasure to drown Palestinians in every aspect of life. Itstretched for so long that the world grew used to it. EhudOlmert`s government, which started out ostensibly dovish,responded to the disappearance of the Israeli soldier inGaza with shameful haste. What is not understandable iswhy Israel chose to disable Gaza`s power station and blowthe major arteries of infrastructure that are necessaryfor life. This is Israel`s response to Palestinian attacksthat used homemade, less harmful, rockets. WhetherIsrael`s action is reactionary or not, the nature of theirretaliation is going far beyond any reason.

It is already too late for Israel to pretend to beavoiding civilian death. Civilians were compromised by thefirst attack on Gaza`s infrastructure. Still, Israel hasthe audacity to boast that it is acting on world opinionthat civilians must be spared. Moreover, Israel`sadmittance of food and fuel to Gaza in the wake of theirinitial attack seems humanitarian, but the supplies arefar below the minimum requirements of the 1.4 millionresidents.

Mass destruction and punishment of Palestinians amounts toquestionable morals. In future years it will embarrass thestate of Israel. It probably already saddens everypeace-loving Israeli.

The genuine hope is that Palestinians will not becomeentrenched in this sad human tragedy and instead concernthemselves with resolution. Palestinians should be alertto Olmert`s plan to devour the livelihood of the West Bankand east Jerusalem, having turned Gaza into a swamp ofsorrow. This is the `New Gaza` that will take many monthsand hundreds of millions of dollars to bring back to whatit used to be just a week ago, the `Old Gaza`.

The apricot tree will somehow live, like many other treesaround Gaza, and will, I hope, continue to inspire.

. Sami Abdel-Shafi is co-founder of Emerge ConsultingGroup, a management consultancy in Gaza City